African Catwalk Captures Africa’s Fast Growing Fashion Industry

African Catwalk is a new book by award-winning photographer Per-Anders Pettersson, that takes the viewer on a journey behind the scenes of Africa’s flourishing fashion industry. African Catwalk brings together images shot in 16 countries over a 7 year period, and captures a side to the fashion industry rarely seen by the audience. From the birds-eye view of models parading down a sleek catwalk under the glare of bright lights to the unguarded moments of models waiting their turn African Catwalk documents the details that are making the Africa’s diverse fashion industry one of the most exciting around.

Through Pettersson’s lens we get get to see an increasingly sophisticated industry whose colourful inventiveness is challenging the negative stereotypes about Africa that are all too often relayed in global media. The Africa we see in Pettersson’s images is vibrant, resilient, unconventional and creative. In addition to the glossy images, African Catwalk also features essays by Simone Cipriani, Head of the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the International Trade Centre and Italian/Haitian fashion designer Stella Jean to name but two.

“An African designer is similar to an artist, insofar as he or she smells the wind that blows among the trees of society. African fashion tells the story of society: its positivity, creativity and capacity to do a great deal with scarce resources.” – Simone Cipriani

The absence of written essays by a designer from the continent only serves to gives greater significance to the visuals, bringing forth the diverse personalities in creative expression -and like many celebrated international designers- the lengths they will go to present the vision for their collections.

African Catwalk is published by Keher Verlag, and can be purchased on Amazon.